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Aims
The ArtAbilitation international conference offers
a platform for dissemination where art, creative expression and/or playful
activity is involved. ART also stands for Assistive, Rehabilitative &
Therapeutic (ART*) technology and application. A common goal is the empowerment of people with
disabilities, without restriction to ability, age, race, gender or creed. Both Rehabilitation
and Habilitation issues are pertinent for presentation in
ArtAbilitation.
Rehabilitation of people with disabilities is a process
aimed at enabling them to reach and maintain their optimal physical, sensory,
intellectual, psychological and social functional levels. Rehabilitation
provides disabled people with the tools they need to attain independence and
self-determination. The term Habilitation
refers to the process of enabling people with disabilities to develop skills
and participate as fully as possible in the community, and as such it is an
ongoing process which enhances the quality of life of people with disabilities
and empowers them towards self-determination. Habilitation is based on the
developmental principle which holds that all people have the capacity to grow
and learn in their own way.
Research initiatives that involve educating and
training of staff and associated service industry personal to the potentials
from new techniques and creative/play related interventions are especially
welcome to submit a paper.
The ArtAbilitation conference fulfils a void in the
field by targeting the reporting, presentation, and, - if possible –, ‘demonstration’
of practise based applications where fun through creativity and play is in
focus as the interventional process toward (re)habilitation. The organisers
wish to promote practised application rather than solely lab based work.
As an open-ended entity ArtAbilitation has a goal to
encourage delegate attendance across disciplines. Thus, for example,
researchers, academics and inventors present alongside carers, artists, and
families. Students are especially encouraged to show their project work so as
to receive constructive input from the academic community. Non-formal,
idiosyncratic, and adaptive approaches where new advances in technology and
creative thinking are applied towards quality of life issues is a focused core
of the event.
Potentials from digital video games are presented
alongside the use of non-invasive sensor technologies in empowering painting or
music making from body gesture. Exciting new hybrid solutions are presented
alongside new ways of working with traditional tools. It is a growing
conference that targets a growing community that necessitates planning for the
next generation of therapists, inventors and associated disciplines. New
human-centered tools that are required to support this community are presented
and debated.
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